In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, organizations face an increasingly complex range of cybersecurity threats. The proliferation of cloud services and remote working arrangements has increased the vulnerability of digital identities to exploitation, making it imperative for companies to strengthen their identity security measures.
Our recent research report, The Underground Identity Report, offers valuable insights into the challenges and vulnerabilities organizations encounter in managing digital identities. The report paints a vivid picture of “hidden” identity security liabilities where attackers exploit identity threat exposures (ITEs) such as forgotten user accounts and misconfigurations to breach organizations’ defenses, with each ITE represents a significant threat to the security of organizations.
Discover the most common identity security gaps that lead to compromises in the first-ever threat report focused entirely on the prevalence of identity security gaps.
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These findings reveal alarming statistics that highlight the widespread prevalence of ITEs in organizations of all sizes:
- 67% of organizations unknowingly expose their SaaS applications to potential compromises through insecure password synchronization practices.
- 37% of admin users still rely on weak authentication protocols like NTLM.
- 31% of user accounts are service accounts, which attackers try to target as security teams often overlook them.
- A single misconfiguration in Active Directory generates an average of 109 new shadow administrators, allowing attackers to change settings and permissions and gain greater access to machines as they move deeper into an environment.
The move to cloud-based environments introduces additional challenges as organizations synchronize on-premise user accounts with cloud identity providers (IdPs). While this simplifies access, it also creates a path through which attackers can exploit ITEs in on-premise environments to gain unauthorized access to cloud resources.
Ultimately, it is essential to recognize the dynamic nature of identity threats. Cybercriminals are constantly evolving their tactics, underscoring the need for a holistic, layered approach to security. By adopting proactive measures such as Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and investing in robust identity security solutions, organizations can improve their resilience against identity-related threats.
Learn more about the hidden weaknesses that expose organizations to identity threats here and pay attention to the report’s findings to prioritize security investments and eliminate blind spots in identity security.